Monday, August 10, 2009
So close now
I'm typing this from Birmingham's Shuttlesworth International Airport--the wi-fi's still free here, God bless them--a few minutes from boarding a flight that will take me to Charlotte. A flight there will take me to Detroit, and a car there driven by a friend will take me home for the first time in 29 days.
In short: full service will be restored to the JCCW tomorrow. And I do mean full service: time is tight, so we'll be packing in as much Cheese Puffin' and DEATH reviewin' as possible over the next couple of weeks, in addition (of course) to covering all the developments out of Auburn's fall camp, all of which will be mere PRELUDE to the final week of countdowns leading up to the opener. I know the last four weeks have been a trial for you dozens of loyal readers out there and I sincerely appreciate your undying patience. But seriously: I'm going to make it up to you.
OK, a few things from practice:
--Hearing that Chizik had been over-the-top hands-on in his special teams practice is music to the ears and a salve to the soul. And while I'm not sure if Byrum going 7-for-7 in a drill and kicking on Arena League posts and all this positive jazz means all that much until he's standing on Pat Dye Field and kicking a 37-yarder in the third quarter of a tie game, but it's better than nothing.
--Four scholarship linebackers in Sunday's practice. Four. Good gravy. I never thought I'd type "Man, does it suck that Adam Herring can't get healthy," but man, does it suck that Adam Herring can't get healthy.
--A totally unsupported theory on Billings's academic troubles: if he's graduated, that means he'd have to get into grad school to continue playing for Auburn, right? He can't play without being enrolled. There are certain hurdles you have to clear to gain admittance, and while these are some low, low hurdles we're talking about for a guy in Billings's position, maybe Billings found a way not to clear them? It's a total guess, but it's all I've got, at least.
--AAARRRGGGHHH Aubrey Phillips medical condition line depth AAAAARRRGGGGHHHH
--Seriously, that the line on Mike McNeil has been "Well, he's coming along" as opposed to "Oh, he'll be ready in plenty of time" is not encouraging. Mike Slade to the courtesy phone, Mike Slade to the courtesy phone.
--So, how many Deangelo Benton write-ups have we had already? Yeah, I think we're going to need him this year.
Back tomorrow. Back for reals, as the kids say.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Interesting theory on Billings. I haven't thought of that angle. Very possible.
LT
I don't know exactly what the deal with Billings is, but I highly doubt that's it.
Once you graduate, you do not have to go to graduate school in order to stay eligible, and in fact that is generally very rare. When players graduate, they generally just start working on a second bachelor's degree, usually in a closely related field.
Graduation or not, though, you still have to complete a certain number of hours in the previous year in order to be academically eligible. I imagine that Billings completed enough hours to get his degree, but has not yet completed enough hours in order to be academically eligible to participate in the 2009 football season. And I imagine he is probably taking some inter-session courses right now trying to get eligible. If he passes those, he'll be fine. If not, he'll probably be sitting out the season.
Did I hear you say "Season of Death"? There is no time left for that. Fall camp is in full swing and we are about to embark on our "Season of Life". Scrim is set for Tues. Life is good!
Hope you enjoyed the sebatacle. You were missed sorely
Post a Comment